This invention relates to meat tenderizing machines.
It is a well known practice to tenderize a cut of meat by striking it repeatedly with a suitable hammer device. However, this can be a very tiring and tedious operation when it is carried out manually, particularly if there are a large number of cuts to be tenderized. Various machines have been developed in the past for tenderizing meat cuts, some of these machines employing a series of knives which subject the meat to a number of small cuts in order to tenderize same while others employ a form of press plate that is reciprocated in order to strike the meat and thereby tenderize same. Many of the known machines, particularly those employing a number of knives, are believed to be quite expensive and not particularly suitable for certain cuts of meat.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,413,681 issued Dec. 3, 1968 to J. Manaster describes a machine for flattening poultry meat which includes a conveyor belt and a vertically movable press member. There are a plurality of rigid plate members arranged along the conveyor and on these members the chicken sections are placed. The portion of the conveyor located below the press is supported by a rigid plate. The press member has a press plate with a serrated bottom surface and is air actuated. There appear to be no means for adjusting the downward movement of the press plate in this machine in order to accommodate poultry sections of different thicknesses. This known machine appears to rely upon the use of an air cylinder to actuate the press plate in order to prevent the piece of chicken from being crushed.
More recent U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,414 which issued Jun. 3, 1980 to Kureha Kagaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha describes a reciprocating type tenderizer driven by a rotary crank to enable higher operating speeds. A conveyor used to transport the meat cuts has its upper surface positioned within 1-2 mm of the bottom dead center position of the cutting edges to provide good penetration. There appears to be no provision in this known tenderizing machine for adjusting the depth of penetration of the cutting edges.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel meat tenderizing machine employing a reciprocally mounted tenderizing tool and means for reciprocating this tool wherein the reciprocating means can be adjusted in order to adjust the reciprocal movement of the tool. In this way, the machine can be easily adjusted to accommodate meat cuts of various thicknesses.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a meat tenderizing machine that can be constructed at a reasonable cost and that will operate quickly and efficiently to tenderize a large number of meat cuts.